GRID designed to break America

Codemasters' sexy new racing game Race Driver: GRID has been designed to appeal to American gamers who didn't 'get' TOCA, says chief games designer Ralph Fulton.

"We reached a stage with the TOCA franchise where we'd hit a ceiling with the number of people to whom we could sell that type of content. It certainly does not appeal broadly in the United States, hence unit sales in single digits for previous TOCA games over there," Fulton told Eurogamer.

"We make no bones about it, corporately, that we want to make the American market as important as our European market. If that sounds clinical, then I guess that's just the way the games industry is at the moment.

"But I don't think the people who traditionally love touring cars and open-wheel racing will be disappointed, because you can still do those things in this game as well. And we still use the AI and the physics which have made those games really successful," he added.

Race Driver GRID has invited comparison to the Project Gotham Racing series with its city-based race tracks and Fulton's professed desire to "make racing exciting again".